The Connector
The Connector
Harvest Records

Between the upcoming release of Death Grips newest album, “Year of the Snitch”  and the recent release of “Toilet” by Clown Core, there are no two bands more uniquely qualified to play music together in 2018.

For context, Death Grips is a cult-classic industrial hip-hop group and Clown Core is an absurdist jazz/electronic/death-metal duo. Both bands are at the apex of experimental. There has been a long running debate about whether or not Death Grips can even be considered hip-hop, and Clown Core is equally difficult to categorize.

What I like about both bands is that they effectively mash different genres into a singular glorious amalgamation of noise. The integration of a large assortment of musical styles and instruments is what sets them apart from their contemporaries.

The bold visual styles of each band also play a large role in establishing the underground brain-melting aesthetic they share.

“No Love” by Death Grips and “Hell” by Clown Core are the first songs I heard from each band respectively. Both songs have strange and engaging videos that drew me in before I even had a chance to enjoy the music.

I found “No Love” on YouTube and was drawn to the red and blue filter placed over footage of the band playing, almost like it’s meant to be viewed in 3D. On top of that, the band’s performance is what really left an impression on me. The raw and aggressive way they destroy the instruments, play passionately and strain to shout their hearts out makes it feel like they are possessed by their own music in the best way possible.

Clown Core

“Hell” aired as a brief interlude between shows on Adult Swim’s online streaming network. Watching Adult Swim for as long as I have has conditioned me to expect every form of dissonant weirdness there is. But, I was still taken aback when I saw two clowns playing jazz inside a port-o-potty. The mixture of hyper-fast jazzy beats, keyboarding and saxophone juxtaposed against the abrupt shifts to grindcore instrumentation and death growls has rapidly put Clown Core on the “play this at my funeral” list for me.

I believe that it’s God’s will that these two bands tour together in the future. The potential for audio-visual insanity is too good to pass up. The world needs to see what kind of madness that they could produce given the opportunity. I would like to see the kind of visuals you get at a Tool or a Primus show — dynamic changing light fixtures, pyrotechnics and accompanying music video visuals — and give that treatment to Death Grips and Clown Core.

Once they get the basics down they can branch out in their own ways and have masked interpretive dancers running throughout the audience wearing LED light displays covering them head-to-toe. Trained monkeys can serve people drinks and even participate in the mosh-pits. Maybe audience members can line up to be shot out of a cannon on stage and into a vat of slime.

These are just a few ridiculous suggestions, but I’m sure that whatever the bands could come up with themselves would put my stupid ideas to shame. There’s nothing that society or the world needs right now more than a Death Grips and Clown Core collaboration. Except for maybe an MF Doom and Flying Lotus album.

For more from these artists check them out on YouTube and Spotify.